Manufacturers of glass sheets, particularly glass sheets formed into various curved shapes for use as automotive windshields, backlites, and sidelites, are interested in measuring and evaluating the amount of optical distortion in the formed sheets that might be perceived by a human observer, such as the operator or passenger in a vehicle in which the glass may be mounted as the windshield, backlite, or sidelite. Manufacturers, as well, desire to identify small marks or other defects that are visible on the surface of the form glass sheets.
Various types of glass sheet optical inspection systems are known. One known optical inspection system is disclosed in United States Application Publication No. 2012/0098959 A1, which application is also assigned to the assignee of the invention disclosed herein. This disclosed optical inspection system may be implemented in either a laboratory (i.e., off-line) or an in-line configuration in which the inspection system is mounted to inspect glass sheets as they are being conveyed in a processing system. Thus, it may be desirous to implement an in-line configuration which includes a simple, reliable mechanism for collecting a glass sheet as it is conveyed during processing, positioning the glass sheet for image acquisition by the inspection system, and returning the glass sheet to the conveyor.